Machine for sorting and grading tobacco-leaves.



J. W.ISTANTON.

MACHINE FOR SORTING AND GRADING TOBACCO LEAVES.

APPLICATION FILED 11017.15, 1902.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

, PATENTED JULYB, 1906.

No. 824,751. PATENTED JULY 3,1906.

J. w. STANTON. MACHINE FOR SORTING AND GRADING TOBACCO LEAVES.

APPLIOATION FILED NOV. 16 1902.

2 sssssssss E 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH W. STANTON, OF WEST SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE FOR SORTING AND GRADING TOBACCO-LEAVES.

To all whom, it may concern;

Be it known that I, J osnrn W. STANTON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at West Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Machines for Sorting and Grading Tobacco- Leaves, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to machines for antomatically sorting or sizing articles according to their length, and has especial reference to a machine of this class designed to sort leaves of tobacco, the object of the invention being to produce a machine whereby the leaves may be graded according to length and deposited each length in its, particular box or at a particular place on or near the machine, the operation of the machine being automatic, the leaves being fed into the machine by hand. I

In the drawings forming part of this application, Figure 1 is a perspective view, partly in section and having some parts broken away, of a machine constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of an adjustable roll-supporting arm, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of mechanism embodying my invention adapted to sort the leaves into a larger number of grades or lengths than the mechanism shown in Fig. 1.

The machine shown in said Fig. 1 embodies only such parts as adapt it to sort leaves of two lengthsone length being very short and the other length very longand the machine is shown in this way simply to illustrate its adaptability, and the mechanism whereby the sizes between these two extremes might be sorted out is omitted from this figure of the drawings, for the reason that in a perspective view of this character the additional parts would result in rendering the drawing almost illegible, and it is for this reason that these parts have been embodied in a sort of diagrammatic view in Fig. 3.

Referring now to the drawings, a may indicate the frame of the machine, constructed in any suitable manner to properly support the various rolls and conveyer-belts mounted thereon. In this frame a canvas or other flexible belt 1) runs horizontally for nearly the entire length of the machine, being supported at one end upon a roll a and at the opposite end upon a roll d, and preferably at some point between these rolls the lower part Of the belt runs over a third roll 6,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 15,1902. Serial No. 131,562-

Patented July 3, 1906.

which may act as an idler-roll, whereby said belt may be maintained under a proper tension. On one end of the roll 0 there is mounted a suitable driving-pulley f, which is shown only in Fig. 1. On a level with the top of the belt I) and in proximity to the roll 0 is a table g, onwhich the leaves to be sorted may be placed in a bundle and one by one passed onto the belt I), which moves in a direction away from said table. The right-hand edge of the belt I) as the operator stands at the table runs close to a vertically-disposed guide-board h, and as the leaves are placed upon the belt this board serves as a gage to guide the operator in laying the leaves on the belt, each leaf being placed thereon with the stem end toward the board.

In Fig. 1 there are two endless conveyerbelts running over the roll 0 on top of the belt I), which are lettered, respectively, L and 9'. Assuming that the belt 4. is fourteen inches from said board it and the belt 3' is twenty inches therefrom, all leaves fed into this machine will then be sorted into two lots-viz, those long enough to be picked up by the belt i and too short to overlap the belt j, and the second lot will comprise all leaves longer than the distance between the gage-board and said belt j. It is obvious that other belts may be located between the belts i and j, as shown, for example, in Fig. 3, whereby the grading of the leaf may be close enough to sort all leaves varying in length only two or three inches, each length being conveyed to its particular receptacle. To grade as closely as this, the construction shown in Fig. 3 is the one usually adoptedthat is to say, the

.flexible belt I) is made relatively narrow and serves as a conveyer for a leaf whose length is less than the distance from the gage-board to the nearest of the endless vertically-disposed sorting-belts, as the belt 11, for example, these short leaves running through on said belt I) to the farther extremity thereof, where they drop to the floor or into a box placed to receive them under the roll (Z. In said Fig. 3 there are two sorting-belts interposed between the belts i and j, (shown in Fig. 1 and these are indicated by the letters i and y" and the construction is identical with that shown in said Fig. 1, except that all of the sorting-belts are located one side of the canvas belt instead of running over it, as shown therein, and these belts 'L i j j constitute practically a widening of the belt I), which widened portion is progressively reduced in width as one belt after another of those just enumerated is turned upwardly running under a roll located close to the upper surface ofthe belt I). These rolls all having the same function. are similarly lettered, as k, and above them other guide-rolls 7c are located, over which these belts are from their vertical direction again guided in a horizontal direction toward the end of the machine, where, turning down over another roll they run downwardly over a roll m, located a little below the level of the belt I), and from thence running under the roll e again pass around. the roll a. It will thus be clearly seen that the rotation of the roll 0 gives all of these sorting-belts a movement in the same direction as the belt I) and at the same speed.

The principle of sorting according to length is thus clearly shown from the foregoing description, and, for example, if a leaf be slid onto the belt I) from the table and the tip of it overlaps the belt 7' it will be guided by said belt under the first of the guide-rolls 7c, and thereby given an upward direction following the movement of this belt; but if said leaf should only be long enough to have the end thereof overlap the belt 7;, for example, it would then be carried along until it arrives at the third of the guide-rolls k, where it would be given the same upward turn, and thus every leaf passed through the machine will be picked up by its proper belt, and those too short even to overlap the belt 1 will all be dropped together by themselves, as described.

To carry the leaves upward after they have been given the upward turn by their respective sorting-belts, two other rolls-viz, n and 0are mounted-n just over the roll 7c and 0 just under the roll 7c and the endless carrier-belts p run around the rolls 7c and 0. The latter are so located that they will guide one side of the belt against the side of the belt p, and thus the tip of the leaf will be gripped etween these belts, as shown in Fig. 1, and carried upward and over the roll 0 and dropped into a box g, placed under said roll, or these leaves will be otherwise taken care of at that point. Other carrier-belts disposed along the rolls 7c 0 from the sorting-belt inward toward the gage-board hgrasp the leaves in the same manner as the belts just described and carry them over the roll 0 in a properly-extended position substantially parallel with the roll, as shown in Fig. 1, the tip of the leaf being carried into engagement with these belts by the sorting-belt. The number of the carrier-belts is determined according to the length of the leaf, and preferably under each of the rolls 0' is a suitable receptacle in which the leaves may be deposited. As shown in Fig. 1, the various rolls carrying these belts are arranged so that they may be adjusted to give to the belts the necessary tension, and for this purpose the rolls are of tobacco-leaves may be effected by means of this machine, and from practical experiments therewith it has been demonstrated that the leaves are in no wise injured in their passage between the belts, and the work performed is not only done with much greater economy, but also with much greater accuracy than the same work performed by hand.

In constructing these machines of course in matters of dimension they would have to be adapted to the particular class of goods to be handled, and as various localities and climates produce tobacco-leaveshaving greatlyvarying lengths each machine must be built to meet the particular demands of the goods to be sorted.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. A machine for sorting tobacco-leaves according to size, comprising a conveyer device which consists of a series of belts running side by side, guide-rolls located at different distances from the feed end of the conveyer, with which said belts engage successively, and whereby they are deflected away from said conveyer, beginning with the outer one to narrow the conveyer progressively, together with a carrier device'coacting with the deflected portion of the conveyer-belt to remove a leaf which may pass between one of said guide-rolls and'the conveyer-belt, from the surface of the latter.

2. A machine for sorting tobacco-leaves according to size, comprising a conveyer device which consists of a series of endless contiguous belts movable together in the same direction, constituting a flat moving surface; and means for deflecting said belts one at a time, beginning with the outside one, to move in a direction at an angle to said flat surface, to progressively narrow the latter, and flexible carrier-belts located at the point of deflection of each of said first-mentioned belts to engage a leaf to carry it away from said surface.

3. A machine for sorting tobacco-leaves according to size, comprising a conveyer device which consists of a horizontall -movin surface com osed of a series of bets of different lengt s, guide-rolls for changing the direction of the series of belts which carry the leaf and located at difierent distances from the feeding end of the machine, a series of rolls for deflecting the said belts, one at a time, in combination with another belt to remove the leaf from the machine.

4. In a tobacco-leaf-sorting machine, a conveyer-belt or apron, a series of belts of IIO different len ths and running side by side, said series ofielts being driven from the same roller as the conveyer-belt or apron, and means for removing the leaves of the same lengths from the machine, said removing means being located above the apron and series of belts and cooperating therewith when the leaf is removed.

5. In a machine of the class described, two

10 rollers carrying an apron, one of the rollers being a driving-roller, a series of sortingbelts driven from the driving-roller and extending different distances from the drivingroller, a series of deflecting and carrying rollers for the series of belts, located above the apron so that there is a free open space above the apron, whereby the leaf is not engaged by the upper belts.

JOSEPH W. STANTON. Witnesses:

WM. H. OHAPIN, K. I. CLEMoNs. 

